This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
During use of various browsers/servers (B/S) and clients/servers (C/S), a user generally needs to input character strings such as a username and password to confirm his user identity. To protect the username and password from being easily hacked, the user needs to set a strong password to assure the security of user information. Generally, a strong password is a password which is the length of at least 8 characters and which at least contains characters from three of the following four categories: uppercase letters, lowercase letters, digits, and symbols on the keyboard (such as: !, $, or #).
Presently, for palm devices such as mobile phones, there are generally two kinds of character input keyboards: nine-patch input keyboards and full keyboard input keyboards are used.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a layout of characters on a nine-patch input keyboard. As shown in FIG. 1, on the keyboard, 26 letters are distributed on numeric keys. In addition, there is a switch key on the keyboard. The switch key is used to switch to a special symbol input interface. When a user uses the keyboard to input character information such as a username and password, he may input corresponding digits and letters by multiple taps, then switch to the special symbol input interface by using the switch key, input corresponding special symbols, and then switch back.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a layout of characters on a full keyboard input keyboard. As shown in FIG. 2, the keyboard includes a keyboard interface on which 26 letters are distributed and a keyboard interface on which special symbols and digits are distributed. The user may switch between the two keyboard interfaces by using switch keys on the two keyboard interfaces so as to input character information such as the username and password.